Abstract
IN the issue of Ainbix of December 1937, Dr. D. J. Lysaght publishes an interesting account of Robert Hooke's theory of combustion, which he outlined in “Micrographia” (1665) and amplified in his “Lampas” (1677) and “Cutlerian Lectures” (1679). Hooke's failure to impress his views upon the members of the Royal Society is attributed to his lowly social position, the simplicity of his conceptions, and the innate conservatism of the seventeenth-century mind. Hooke wrote only a scanty account of the experiments upon which he based his ideas, and Dr. Lysaght has done a useful service to historical chemistry by giving a critical discussion of these experiments, as transcribed in Birch's “ History of the Royal Society” (1756–57) from the Royal Society's “Journal Book” (1661–87). Hooke's “many luciferous experiments” sufficed to demonstrate all the important facts bearing upon the problem of combustion. “The consumption of a selected portion of the air, the necessity for a continuous supply of this fluid, the formation of heat and light by the 'composition', the existence of solids with the essential constituent of the air 'fixed' in them and available for combustion, and the increase of weight on calcination must be admitted to be almost all the evidence required for the modern theory. These phenomena were linked up with those relating to respiration. The one fact that was not understood seems to be the part played by the air in calcination... and this deficiency prevented the complete synthesis that appears to have been so near at hand.” Dr. Lysaght concludes that Hooke's work had the effect of postponing for a considerable time the adoption of the phlogiston theory of combustion.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hooke's Experiments on Combustion. Nature 141, 323–324 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141323c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141323c0